I.M: A Memoir by Isaac Mizrahi

´The Syrian community have never seen anything like me before´.

One of the most successful Jewish designers in the US, Isaac Mizrahi is a bubbling personality that wrote fashion history. Born in a Syrian-Jewish family and a student of Yeshiva of Flatbush, he broke up with the religious community, came out as gay and fulfilled his artistic dreams. In addition to being a fashion designer, he also performed on the stage and movies, wrote a graphic novel and created costumes for opera or theater.

I.M is his memoir relating his life story. I  had access to the book in audio format, read by the author and it was a very pleasant experience - although Mizrahi mentioned that he does not like to hear his own voice. 

The book unfolds as a chronological suite of the events that marked his early childhood, his relationship with his parents - especially with his mother who was and is a model for him - with the Syrian Jewish community and his steps into the world of fashion, as well as his sleep problems and lifelong struggle with insomnia - an aspect I largely relate to as well. There are many details and observations interesting also for the fashion business history in general.

At times I felt that there are way so many details and a larger focus on events, without a specific structuring of the memoir based on milestones or various categories, but it belongs to the genre of memoir to follow the timeline and style that it is considered appropriate by the author and no one else. It is a subjective choice that the reader shall accept in its entirety.

A special not to the cover which is elegant, simple and straight forward. It suits very well Mizrahi´s fashion style.

Rating: 3 stars

Jewish Movie Review: Leona by Isaac Cherem

 

I was burning to see Leona the debut movie by Isaac Cherem (here is a YouTube Q&A with him), after reading a couple of reviews and the general outline of the topic. It took me a couple of tries and a bit of extra searching, but finally was able to watch it on Vimeo and all the efforts were worth: this movie is one of the best I´ve seen in a long time, especially on a Jewish topic.

The topic: Ariela (Leona, in Spanish), a 25 yo mural artist, belongs to the very strict and closed Syrian Jewish community in Mexico. Under pressure to date and eventualy marry a local Jewish guy, she fell in love with Ivan, which creates a drama in the family and community, with her actively dating mother kicking her out of the house. When they broke up, everyone almost threw a party, but her efforts to find a Jewish partner failed again.  

The story of this relationship reverberates into the identity and history of resilience of the community itself. Shortly after Ariela made public her relationship, a rabbi, a kind of marital consultant, her relatives, her mother, all are trying in different ways to convince her to give up. ´You are with someone who thinks very diferent from us´, she is told. ´Not that different from me´, she answers. 

At the beginning, the dynamics between Ariela and Ivan are set by their different identities: He asks her ´are you very Jewish?´ ´Normal´, she answers, and there is a long silence between them. He shows her the city outside her familiar neighbourhood, sharing with her his food spots and even a bag of lemon sprinkles grasshoppers (some are kosher though).

They broke up after she could not keep her word to introduce him to her family and circle of friends. After all, she was the one who gave up and left her community but it seemed that it was not enough. Or was a deep communication failure between them. But it was over as soon as they started they life together. It hurt a bit to break up, but both of them kept walking their separate paths but this is not the end of the story. 

The Jews featured in the movie are not your typical observant Jews. They do not dress or eat or behave as in Brooklyn, but they have the same cohesive sense of belonging. They are aware of their strength built by their common history and refusal of assimilation. (Actually some Syrian Jewish communities are a bit extra than any other community, by being reluctant to marry other Jews, particularly Askenazim, not accepting converts. Hopefully, one day I will have enough time and serious material to delve more into this topic. Currently in Mexico there are around 16,000 Syrian Jews, with a continuity of over 100 years.) From the point of view of the Jewish law, the Halacha, if Ariela would have marry Ivan her children will continue to be Jewish. But Ariela doesn´t want children, doesn´t want to be married, she has enough of all the ridiculous dates she is set up by friends and relatives. Her divorced mother is intensively dating, with almost the same results (Shidduch crisis, anyone), but she is not considering looking for a solution outside the community. 

Leona raises so many questions both at individual/personal and community level, but leave us to think about them and eventually ask even more and more questions. People fell in love all the time, but it is love enough to leave a community, the exclusivistic club the rabbi in the movie mentioned ? Is love enough for connecting two people, or there is more to it? 

Besides the artistic conception, and the good play of Ariela which is such a natural, carefree yet thoughtful character, the beauty of this movie resides in the curiosity of exploring the inevitable layers of making choices outside the normative. It´s a very beautiful artistic way to ask so many painful questions.

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: Lot Six by David Adjmi

I am for a long time very conflicted about when exactly someone may consider his or her life experience rich enough for writing a memoir. I am not radically opposed to the idea that someone before the retirement age has a life eventful enough to turn it into a 1 person personal story, but given the amount of such accounts I came across in the last years and months, I will be very cautious in considering that all those experiences are worth writing about and nevertheless reading them.

After such a skeptical, arrogant even start, let´s talk the book. Lot Six by David Adjmi is a finely written account of the author´s struggle in and out the very conservative - not necessarily strictly religious in the classical Orthodox sense of the world - Syrian-Jewish community in NYC. In my experience, the Syrians are one of the most insular Jewish communities, with a very different and highly exclusivistic attitude towards other Jews, for historical and sociological reasons that I will maby discuss on another occasion.  

The book is not one of those Off-the Derech books, about an Orthodox Jew that left the fold for becoming an atheist, opposed to his previous community. Instead, it is an account of a process of coming at terms with an identity, sexual as well, reinventing a new destiny, but without necessarily opposing the old world. From this perspective, the story appeals too much to audiences that are ready for this kind of accounts, without a dramatic ending - he still stays in contact with his family, although he is dismissed and run away himself from the yeshivish world. 

Adjmi remains connected to his disfunctional family which struggles with money. His family is broken way before the official separation of his parents: his father is a con, he and his siblings are struggling with depression and his mother is rather psychologically absent. ´People in my family talk about killing themselves all the time´. 

Although the family is not strictly religious, rather normally Jewish, they sent him to a yeshiva, where his religious experiences are rather peculiar. There is anything special about his Jewish heritage that remains his background story because, as we many of us know, you cannot divorce it easily, if ever.

Personally, I´ve found the part dedicated to the search for his own literary voice more interesting and revelatory. It made me curious to read some of his plays that are inspired by his personal encounters and life experiences. But as much as I consider it is important to share a personal experience and story of reinvention and transformation, eventually helping other people going through similar experiences to raise and find their voices, sometimes I felt that all the information was enough for a long article at the first person, but definitely too long for a full book. As I had access to the book in audiobook format, I´ve found the book experience even longer...

Rating: 3 stars

Jewish stories in Aleppo: Picciotto family

There were many illustrious Jewish families in the Middle East, and Picciotto remains until today a famous brand. Present in Syria, Egypt or in Beyrouth, they arrived in the area from Livorno at the end of the 18th century. In Aleppo, they settled in Khan al-Gumruk. Besides trade, members of the family were amongs the first consul in the city for the Holy Roman Empire shortly after they relocated in the region. Apparently they did a good job, as the Austrian Empire enobled them in 1806, one of the first Jews to receive such a honour.

One of the most important figure was Esdras de Picciotto, who held the position of of Austrian consul general. In this position, he presided over the Catholic services in the city, part of his obligations being also the enthronement of the Apostolic Vicar of Syria. In 1818, his brother, Eliahu, was designated as vice-consul of Denmark, while the other brother, Raffaele, was the consul of Russia. Ironically, at the time, both the Russian and Austrian Empire were strongly anti-Semitic and on their territories, life of the Jews were a cheap commodity. Other members of the family took the positions as consuls of Sweden, the Netherlands, Prussia and Spain. Moise de Picciotto, for instance, was representing 5 countries at once: Austria, Prussia, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium.

In time, they become very wealthy and influential, giving loans to many powerful or simple citizens of Aleppo. In the 19th centuries, they created their own bank.

Members of the family are still alive nowadays mostly in Switzerland, keeping alive their love for Aleppo and the Middle East in general.

The information from this article is mostly based on the research on Aleppo, by Philip Mansel that will be published at the end of April. The edition house house granted me the book via NetGalley.com. It is a detailed overview of the life in and history of Aleppo, but get caught in the usual stereotype about the happy harmony between Jewish and Muslim communities in the Middle East, ignoring the many 'blood labels', frequent at the end of the 19th century, and pogroms against the Syrian Jews. The book is not about Jews in Syria, after all.